Courts

By Jacob Ziegel Toronto-based Ontario Criminal Court of Justice Judge John Ritchie has frequently been the subject of complaints because of alleged prosecutorial bias and nonexplanatory convictions that have often led to reversals on appeal. The complaints involving Judge Ritchie raise two basic questions about the administration of justice in Canada: How do we ensure […]

Ontario’s Crown prosecutors announced on Monday that they will appeal the recent decision of an Ontario judge to strike down a mandatory minimum sentence for a gun crime on constitutional grounds. The case involved Leroy Smickle, a Toronto man who faced three years in prison after police officers found him in possession of an unauthorized, […]

I happened to catch a few moments of Sun News TV the day that the Kingston, Ont., courthouse was shut down due to a bomb threat during the Shafia trial. The reporter was marvelling over the low level of security he had observed at that courthouse up until then. There were no metal detectors at […]

Mark Twain observed once that, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” It’s not our ignorance that gets in the way of reason and good sense, it’s the myths we believe to be fact. When it comes to First Nations’ beliefs […]

By Jacob Ziegel On Nov. 24 of this year the Supreme Court of Canada granted leave to appeal to Monica Cojocaru, a young West Coast mother, suing in her own right and on behalf of her now 10-year old permanently and severely brain damaged son, Eric. She will appeal a decision of the British Columbia […]

The problem with the movement to decriminalize polygamy in Canada, such as it is, has always been a lack of victim heroes. Nobody’s rights were being trampled upon by Section 293 of the Criminal Code, which prohibits “any kind of conjugal union with more than one person at the same time,” except polygamists. And people […]

Despite the early estimates that the combined G8 and G20 summits would cost $1.1-billion to host in Huntsville and Toronto, according to the auditor-general, the final bill ended up being “only” $663.9-million. Of that total, $509-million was to provide security for the twin summits. It’s a figure worth recalling, after Tuesday’s announcement that six so-called […]

A launching author is like a new parent, and I ask the indulgence that is normally accorded both. It is gratifying that all the reviews of my new book that I have seen so far (A Matter of Principle, published by McClelland and Stewart in Canada, and Random House in the United States) have been […]

By Jacob Ziegel Ian Binnie and Louise Charron announced their intention to retire from the Supreme Court of Canada at the end of August more than three months ago. Yet it was only on Aug. 5 that the Minister of Justice announced the appointment procedure the federal government intended to follow in appointing their successors […]